Conflicted and Confused

I was trying to come up with a third "C" word to make it more rhythmic but my brain is too full.

I've just added two blogs to our sidebar so interested folks can follow the musings, mumbling, and mutterings regarding our progress, research, and learning.

I'm also trying to contact some of the new crop of newbies (at least the ones I have access to and urging my fellow Quadrophonics to do the same) to let them in on our blog. Also, urging those newbies to get in contact now and begin establishing a support system. Trust me, you will need it!

Several of us in the program are Twittering (see my recent Twitters in the sidebar of my blog). Lora already gave it up but I'm still hanging in there. While not all Twitters are useful/helpful/interesting I'm actually thinking that it might assist my thoughts (as in help focus/organization) which is an area that I can use all the help I can get.

And if you want to know more about why I'm conflicted and confused you can check out my blog. Any advice welcome!

I can't wait until next year

This is my first blog, so this blog is also a test blog to see if it works. Sorry for being blogged down in life and not blogging in a timely manner.

When I arrived at TTU, and met my fellow cohorters, I immediately recognized the importance of our group, and what we mean to each other. We have an association, whether we like it or not, that will last a lifetime. For that, believe it or not, I am thankful. I hope we remain supportive friends forever. Thank you Deanna, Julie, Christine, Lora, Chris, and Cheri for your help and support. We are the Quadraphonics! We will overcome!

Hyper Rob, drinking too many diet cokes.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

This is it. Our first May Seminar is over (if you couldn't guess from the other posts) and today we go our separate ways.

I am so glad to be done and to be able to sleep in my own bed and assume some sort of normal schedule. I am so eager to see my family -- especially my 7-year-old son -- as being away from them is one of the hardest parts of this.

But I am so sad to say good-bye too all my new friends. I know we will see each other in the MOO and at conferences but it is too hard not to be able to be all together until next year. Of course as Joyce says now we only have to wait 50 more weeks. And fortunately the New Media class has a great DVD of interviews that we can use for our fix when things get really bad.

I cannot explain the bond that it developed here through this experience. I am so glad to be in this program and a part of this amazing group of people.

Ready to go home

Don't get me wrong I have just had the best two weeks of my entire life and I can't wait to return next year but I am really ready to go home. My mind and body are tired. I have put in a lot of late nights and early mornings, partly to keep up with work but also having fun and chatting with my roomies. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and feel that we will be friends for life to call on whenever we need it.

Tomorrow at 5:55 a.m. I begin the long journey home to Potsdam, N.Y. where my three sweet children and wonderful husband will be waiting to pick me up and take me the long five hour car ride home. Did I tell you I live in the middle of no where!

Keep checking back because we all plan to continue to blog and share our experiences as we continue through the program and please feel free to ask any questions. We all are more than happy to impart any of our hard earned wisdom on you (the newbies) as you make it through your first year of classes and prepare to head to May Seminar!

Hasta la bye bye

Time to go home from our first May Workshop...we, the Newbies, morphed into the Quadrophonics in order to make room for the next newbies.

We'll keep posting this year to give you all the information our brains now contain...of course, after cramming two weeks of usability into our heads at lightening speed, I can't say that it accounts for much, but they tell us that we'll retain more later.

All the other cohorts and faculty liken this experience to a boot camp, but I have to say that my former life as a field archaeologist prepared me for this like no other experience - academic or professional.

Well, hasta la bye bye baby...getting on the road to go home to Cincinnati!!!

Same time next year?!!!

Packing List

While I am thinking of it here is a partial list of things that you should plan to bring with you when you come for the May Workshop. Hopefully everyone else will chime in with their favorite items to bring.

• Laptop w/LAN cable and mouse
• Good case to carry anything you need during the day - when you leave the dorm in the am it is unlikely you will be back
• Thumb drive to transfer files back and forth from computer to computer
• Comfortable clothes and shoes for various temps this year the dorms have been cold at night. The first week was cool the second hot but the english building was having so work done on the A/C so we needed to layer
• Notebook
• Pens/Pencils/Markers - Your favorite tools for brainstorming
• Post-its
• Towel or two depending on your preference
• Laundry duffel bag/basket - for carrying back and forth from the washer and dryers
• Sheets and blanket - Nice to have your own
• Pillow - Theirs are flat
• Iron/Ironing board - Work this out with your roomates to have one for the dorm to share
• Lots and Lots of quarters for the washer, dryer and soda machine - If you are like me and many others here you will find you live on the caffeine in the soda to keep you awake.

If you don't see it here feel free to ask but pretty much you will want to bring anything that is going to make you comfortable and at ease. Even though you are only here for two weeks it will feel like you have been here for sixteen. We have even begun to call it home.

Too Busy!

Well it's been a while since any of us have had time to post. We got really busy. The first week seems like cake compared to the second one. Once we got through the book material and moved into the application of what we learned in usability we had a lot of work to do so that we could make our usability test count. In such a short time period for work there is no going back and doing it all over again. Our pilot test seemed like an absolute disaster but we made it through, learned a lot and applied it the next day when we did the test for real. That was gruelling!

Just to give you an idea of what we were up against and how quickly we are moving we ran five test subjects through the lab from 2 - 6 one right after another. We took the evening off and prepared for our presentations. Oh by the way, you have to do an individual presentation while you are here to your peers. On Wednesday we began to crunch the numbers and analyze the data so that we could draw correlations on which we could write our paper that we plan to submit for publication in Computers and Composition. It's a lofty goal but we'll have to see if we can pull it off. Only two more days to do it. I'm sure we will do but we are definately going to be tired when we are done.